Principal Investigator(s):Harrell, Adele, The Urban Institute, and The Public Health Foundation, Drug Abuse Research Group; Powers, Keiko, The Urban Institute, and The Public Health Foundation, Drug Abuse Research Group; Hser, Yih-Ing, The Urban Institute, and The Public Health Foundation, Drug Abuse Research Group

Summary:

This study examined the use of arrestee urinalysis results
as a predictor of other community drug problems. A three-stage public
health model was developed using drug diffusion and community drug
indicators as aggregate measures of individual drug use
careers. Monthly data on drug indicators for Washington, DC, and
Portland, Oregon, were used to: (1) estimate the correlations of drug
problem indicators over time, (2) examine the correlations among
indicators at different stages in the spr... (more info)

This study examined the use of arrestee urinalysis results
as a predictor of other community drug problems. A three-stage public
health model was developed using drug diffusion and community drug
indicators as aggregate measures of individual drug use
careers. Monthly data on drug indicators for Washington, DC, and
Portland, Oregon, were used to: (1) estimate the correlations of drug
problem indicators over time, (2) examine the correlations among
indicators at different stages in the spread of new forms of drug
abuse, and (3) estimate lagged models in which arrestee urinalysis
results were used to predict subsequent community drug
problems. Variables included arrestee drug test results, drug-overdose
deaths, crimes reported to the local police department, and child
maltreatment incidents. Washington variables also included
drug-related emergency room episodes. The unit of analysis was months
covered by the study. The Washington, DC, data consist of 78 records,
one for each month from April 1984 through September 1990. The
Portland, Oregon, data contain 33 records, one for each month from
January 1988 through September 1990.

Access Notes

One or more data files in this study are set up in a non-standard format, such as card image format. Users
may need help converting these files before they can be used for analysis.

Part 1 has eleven 132-character records per case, and
Part 2 has two 132-character records per case. Data contain explicit
decimals.

Methodology

Study Purpose:
The goal of the study was to extend the use of
arrestee urinalysis results in community planning by examining the
relationships among arrestee drug tests and drug-related emergency
room episodes, drug overdose deaths, crimes, and child abuse and
neglect cases. The conceptual framework that was developed addressed
the issue of temporal relationships among indicators by considering
how the diffusion of new patterns of drug abuse and the course of
individual drug careers would cumulatively affect different
indicators. This required an elaboration of assumptions about how drug
abuse spreads, its effects on individuals over time, and the resulting
cumulative effects on the community over time. The product was a
three-stage public health model of drug diffusion and the influence
drug diffusion might be expected to have on various community drug
indicators when they are viewed as aggregate measures of individual
drug use careers. Stage 1 of the model is the initiation of a new drug
use pattern, Stage 2 is spreading drug use, and Stage 3 is drug use
stabilization or decline.

Study Design:
Selection of study sites and community indicators
were determined by data availability. The first criterion was monthly
data on results of urinalysis of arrestees at booking, available for
almost all detained arrestees in Washington, DC, since April 1984. The
additional data on drug-related emergency room episodes, drug overdose
deaths, reported crimes, and reported cases of child abuse and neglect
formed the basis for initial model testing. To examine the extent to
which Washington, DC, might generalize to other communities, Portland,
Oregon, was chosen as a comparison site with similar initial booking
tests of arrestees on a continuous monthly basis and community
indicators similar to those available in Washington, DC. Emergency
room episode data comparable to that in Washington, DC, was not
available for Portland.

Data Source:

agency files from Washington, DC, and Multnomah County,
Portland, and Gresham, Oregon

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: